Tesla Store on Santa Monica Blvd in the Works

The construction wrap just went up around the future site of Silicon Valley-based electric sports car maker Tesla’s Los Angeles store. The LA site is on Santa Monica Blvd., just east of the 405, and a tipster sent in this nice photo. While no Tesla stores are open yet, the company also has a planned Menlo Park, Calif., store, just up the road from the Stanford University campus. According to the company’s web site, Tesla will likely target five key markets with stores: metropolitan San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York, Chicago and Miami, and will open the first two stores “in early 2008.”

Tesla will not sell franchises or dealerships, but will own and run all the stores, at least in California, the company says. At the stores, Tesla can not only sell cars and build buzz, but provide service for the company’s electric powertrain, which requires specialized expertise. Tesla customers will appreciate it — even though Tesla is a Silicon Valley tech company at heart, a software malfunction is a magnitude different from a car breakdown.